Leadership in Times of Crisis

Restoring Calm in Times of Crisis

Fundamental QuestionsFollowing a crisis, leaders must assess:

•What are my people going through?•What is my organization going through?•What does this mean?•What can I do?

Leadership in Time of Crisis

Understanding the Impact of Stress

Leadership during times of stress and crisis begins with understanding how stress impacts people

Fear and DistressResponse

Behavior Change

PsychiatricIllness

Psychosocial Impact of Trauma

Sources: Ursano, 2002; Institute of Medicine, 2003

Each survivor’s disaster isunique

Each survivor is unique

Veteran's Administration & National Center forPTSD

Individual Stress Response

• Physical

• Emotional

• Cognitive

• Behavioral• Spiritual and Life-View

• Coming to terms with one’s own mortality• Questioning one’s religious beliefs and faith

practice• Questioning who/what can I trust?• Spiritual beliefs may be shaken (e.g., "How could

God cause this destruction?") • Loss of security in "terra firma" that the earth is

"solid" and dependable • People lose their illusion of invulnerability; anyone

can be in the wrong place at the wrong time • A sense of meaninglessness

Life-View and Spiritual Reactions to Trauma

Organizational Impact: Ongoing Stressors

• Actual or perceived decreased safety• High cost of lasting impact• Pursuit of medical and psychiatric opinions• People coping with issues related to grief/loss

of dreams, increased financial strain, stress, family concerns, physical needs

• Harsh judgments if emergency decisions were handled poorly (or not!)

Organizational Impact: Ongoing Stressors

• Tolerance within and between systems often decreases as stress, role conflict, and extreme fatigue set in

• Difficulty concentrating at work/increased mistakes

• Irritability with others• Absenteeism and presenteeism• Ongoing financial concerns

Adapted from: Veteran's Administration & National Center for PTSD

The Impact of Critical Incidents on WorkgroupsProductivity Requires that Employees:

• Be healthy enough to return to work and function effectively and safely

• Be assured of their safety and not be afraid of returning to work

• Trust in the leadership and desire to return to work

• Have their loyalty rewarded to remain committed long term

Marsh Crisis Academy

The Cost of Doing Nothing

“The pure rage that stems from

unredressed injury can be more

fearsome than that produced by the original wrong.”

—Gerry Spence Founder, Trial Lawyers

College

Making Sense of the Senseless

Finding Meaning

“…the degree to which people can ultimately come to an understanding of such events in the early aftermath may help restore a sense of security and hasten the process of adaptation.”

• Updegraff, Silver, and Holman (2008)

In Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, the term tragic optimism is defined as “an optimism in the face of tragedy and in view of the human potential which at its best allows for:

(1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment;

(2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and

(3) deriving from life’s transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action.”

Tragic Optimism

Meaning Attribution• Attribution Theory studies how people

make sense of their world • Heider posits that there is a strong need in

individuals to understand transient events by making attributions of cause and effect to:

1. Internal Disposition – What does this say about me?

2. External Situation – What does this say about my environment?

• The purpose is to achieve a sense of order, predictability, and cognitive control

Implications Of Meaning Attribution

• The meaning one assigns has a profound impact on recovery trajectory

• In the absence of an alternative, many individuals will assign a negative meaning to a negative event

• Harsh judgments will follow, either internal (pathologizing) or external (blaming)

• A timely and robust response can: 1. Offer a resilient message to individual

employees 2. Position leadership to guide effective

organizational recovery

Leading in the Storm…

Vision (Understanding Corporate Needs)

Action (Plan to Facilitate Resiliency)+

= Leadership in Times of Crisis

From Michael Useem’s,The Leadership Moment

Phase-sensitive Leadership• Deprivation Basic resources

• Isolation Connectivity

• Chaos Structure

• Helplessness Efficacy

• Victim Survivor

“It is important to note that it is

not the coping skills that individuals have or do not have that are important. What counts are the coping skills that individuals believe they have or do not .”

(Ray, 2004)

Importance of Vision

The Burden of Leadership• Emotional toll

• Isolation is costly

• “Game face” can’t come off

• Reluctance to utilize services

Leadership in Times of Crisis – ACT!

• Acknowledge and name the situation

• Communicate pertinent information with competence and compassion

• Transition to a future-focus, emphasizing adaptive functioning and/or refer to additional care

The ACT Guidelines

• Provides an adaptable framework• Easily communicated during EAP

management consultations• Lends structure to leadership

interactions• Positions leaders to lead – the first step

in risk management and crisis mitigation following an event

ACTAcknowledge

• Acknowledge what has happened

• Summarize what has happened

• Present objective and credible information

• Deliver information with sensitivity

• Serves to: control rumors, reduce anxiety, and return a sense of control to impacted individuals

Communicate• Communicate competence and compassion

• Visible leadership communicates care and concern for those involved

• Transitions to specialist (if utilized)

• Provide information about common reactions to critical incidents and what can be done to exercise resiliency

ACTTransition • Information about Coping – Emphasize resiliency

• Practical Assistance - determine basic and practical needs

• Linkage with Collaborative Services - transition individual to appropriate level of support and provide information. (EAP, counseling center, community resources, written communications and web resources, telephonic support via a 1-800 number, to continued personal assistance/ intervention)

Case Study – The Tucson Shootings

The Search for Meaning

A Leadership Moment• Acknowledge

A Leadership Moment• Communicate

A Leadership Moment• Transition

Final Thoughts

Questions?

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived;

however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Maya Angelou

Leadership in Times of Crisis

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